


Lessons Taken

by mythomagicallydelicious



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Emotional Hurt/Physical Comfort, Episode: c01e044 The Sunken Tomb, Gen, T for language and violence, The de Rolo family, alternate scene of vax punching percy, argument, hc that he still smokes when he feels extreme emotions, kind of, percy's smoke monster, pre-series canonical character deaths, temporary major character death, vax is good at pushing buttons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27633704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythomagicallydelicious/pseuds/mythomagicallydelicious
Summary: An alternate scene in campaign one, episode 44, where Vax and Percy's little chat at the end of the night devolves into a fist fight and an argument neither expected.Or, Vax is good at pushing buttons until they break, and Percy was only a few taps away from an internal misfire.
Relationships: Cassandra de Rolo & Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III & Vax'ildan, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III & Vex'ahlia, Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Kudos: 32





	Lessons Taken

“Not everything is a gods-damned _lesson_ , Percival,” Vax says, lips curled back. “Mistakes aren’t turned into neat little morals to remember for ‘next time.’” Vax pushes closer, drawing his shoulders up. Percy never quite realized how purposely slouched Vax must pose himself normally, for now it was very evident they are nearly level in making eye contact. “What if there isn’t a ‘next time’? Huh? What if your carelessness or excitement had—I mean it _did—_ fucking hell!” Vax curses, clapping his hands to Percy’s shoulders and shaking the other man, fingernails digging in and creasing his damn fancy coat.

“Vax, I understand—“

“Do you? Do you really?” Vax snarls.

“I’ve lost family too. I know that pain of seeing a sister down and unmoving—“

“Vex’halia is worth more to me than my own life. Could you say the same about your own sister? Doesn’t sound like you ever gave a damn about your family unless it was about your titles and money,” Vax spits.

Percy feels his pulse pound in his ears. He brings his hands up to Vax’s wrists and breaks the grapple, sidestepping the other.

“Look,” he starts, beginning to pace slowly back and forth before Vax, “I’ll try not to hold that _slander_ against you, because it’s easy to be angry after almost losing everything.” His fists curl in tight and then release, flexing as he grits his teeth and stares Vax down. “And because I am truly, truly sorry for the part I played in triggering that trap.”

Percival’s voice is deathly low, a dangerous glint in his eyes he’s only seen on the battlefield as Percy unloads a full bag of black powder into an enemy’s chest. Vax sees the mirror image of how he feels on Percy’s features, disgust and anger rising with every heartbeat. Percy steps in closer, nearly nose to nose with him.

“But if you ever, _ever_ , say something like that to me again, I will run you through with every sword in Whitestone until you’re sliced to unrecognizable ribbons, dragons or sisters be damned!”

Percival steps back again, face still clouded and expression thunderous. Any amount of contrition in the conversation before has evaporated as the tension rises in the air between them.

Vax laughs a cold, humorless chuckle at Percy’s pronouncement. “Oh really? Such fire, such passion, from the man who let his sister be shot and dragged into hell. If you cared half as much about Cassandra as I do about Vex, I’m sure we never would have met, Percival. Because I would _never_ have left _my_ sister behind. Ah-ah-ah!” Vax holds a hand up to Percy’s mouth, stopping him from interrupting, pushing Percy against the wall and keeping his mouth _shut_ for one goddamn minute.

“I’m not finished. It’s your turn to listen to someone else make the big fucking “ _lesson”_ for once. As much as we enjoy your ranged attacks in a fight, nothing could have torn me away from my sister’s side if I found her alive after years of knowing I’d caused her death. Damn the consequences! But you—oh, I’m sure it was easy for you. You’re a coward, Percival. And you know fuck-all about family and siblings and love. You’re pathetic.” Vax pulls a dagger and slams it into the wall beside them, striking in the seam between bricks centimeters away from Percy’s ear.

Percy slaps Vax’s hand away from his mouth and pushes back, hands gesturing wildly. “I didn’t have a choice!” He’s red in the face, and for a moment Vax thinks he can smell the hint of a campfire in the air. He doesn’t notice the thin wisps of light gray smoke rising from the coat sleeves gesticulating angrily.

“Didn’t you, though? Stop lying to yourself, Percival,” Vax spits, eyes narrowing further, locked to Percy’s. “And you still act like your family doesn’t mean shit to you—never speak of them, or act like you want to come here for anything other than money. If you saw her on the street, you wouldn’t know her from any other piece of shi—“Vax dodges a punch before he can finish. He ducks to avoid another and he feels Percival’s knuckles glance his jaw.

“You are going to stop talking _right now_ , Vax’ildan, or I will cut out your tongue and ensure you never malign me or my house again.” A few more curls of smoke rise from Percy’s boots, still unnoticed, even as it darkens as it rises.

“All words, no action, Perce! Just like always,” Vax throws back, voice mock-joyful as he dances backward, dodging one last strike from the other. He forgoes his daggers and drops to the floor, swinging one leg out to try and sweep Percy off his feet. It succeeds in unbalancing him, and Vax pushes his advantage, shoving him completely to the floor and climbing atop him, pinning his arms to his sides as he sits on his waist. “How are you going to cut out my tongue now, hm? You can’t even move,” Vax taunts.

A dark bloom of smoke erupts from Percy’s chest, momentarily blinding Vax. He rears back instinctively, trying to clear the smoke from his eyes. His hands waving does nothing, and in his distraction, Percival roars, bucking and flipping their positions. Percy ignores the smoke pouring freely around him now and Vax’s eyes widen, really taking in the amount of dark smoke coming from him. He doesn’t have a chance to speak before Percy’s blows rain down with truer accuracy than before.

“You don’t— _nh—_ know shit about me, or my— _hyuh_ —siblings!” His hands grip the lapels of Vax’s cloak, pulling his head off the floor before slamming him back down.

“Ah, fuck, Perciv—“

“Shut up! Shut _up_! You have no idea what I lost, what I’ve been through.” Percy slams Vax’s head down for emphasis as he shouts, smoke trailing from his mouth with every word. His hands shake as he slams Vax down again and again. “You don’t know anything!”

Vax feels blood drip down the back of his neck, and he laughs again, leaning into another of his bad decisions all the way.

“You killed my sister! You got your sister almost killed! You seeing the theme here yet, your fucking highness, lord of death to all around you?” Vax yells at him, laugh breaching a hysterical edge as he sees the rage distort Percival’s features.

“AND I’M SORRY!” Percy screams, taking Vax by such surprise he’s stunned into silence. “They were mistakes, and I’ll be paying penance in hell for all I’ve done to these people! I don’t need another reminder to show me what I’m guilty of, Vax. It never leaves my non-stop fucking mind.”

Percy lets go of Vax’s cloak, letting him drop to the ground on his own, pushing himself off to the side in a slump, eyes wide open and staring at the smoke lifting from his own sleeves.

“Every night I see my family murdered in front of me, chained beside me in the dungeon, blood pouring down their throats and wailing, screaming, pleading. My sister unlocking my cell and helping me escape, seeing her eyes go glassy and the last words we’d shared echoing in my head. _Hurry, hurry, we have to run—_ I had to _run_.” Percy gasps _run_ and takes a few shallow breaths, eyes boring into the wall and beyond Vax and their argument.

“Every night I see my family dying by my hand, by a weapon I’ve created, or an enemy I’ve made since I left home. By the Briarwoods, or Ripley, or any of a dozen ideas I’ve had about how to take my vengeance on them, gone horribly wrong, and targeting my parents instead. My siblings.”

Percy cradles his head in his hands, throwing his glasses to the floor and out of the way, not caring as they crack, nor caring that the smoke is thickening again as his voice grows heavier. His eyes are still wide open, though.

“My weapons, being the reason there are holes in her chest. My actions directly bringing them down. Things that never happened flashing before my eyes as if telling the future. Gunning down faceless souls, destroying families as surely as mine was. I will be paying penance for a thousand years, Vax, and I don’t need you to tell me why. I don’t need your fucking reminders. I have enough of my own. I know what lessons need to be taken, thank you.”

Percy has quieted down, voice dull and eyes staring at nothing.

Vax levers himself to an upright position, listening to all this. He puts a hand to the back of his head to feel the wound. Not bad, and the bleeding had mostly slowed. Head wounds are always more dramatic than they are. He’ll be fine by morning, with or without a healing word or potion, probably.

He kneels, stretching, twisting his neck both ways and feeling it crack. Percy is just beside him, hands to either side of his head, fingers digging into his shock-white hair and pulling hairs out one by one as he looks at nothing. Vax can feel the distance between them as if it were a gaping void, miles and miles across. He’s been caught in memories that feel endless, too. He knows the thousand-yard stare into the void Percy has, and for a moment he feels a pang of regret at pushing so hard.

“C’mere then, let me take a look at the damage. I’ve been told I have a pretty hard head,” Vax says, reaching out to one of the hands tightening over Percy’s own head. There are patches of reddish-pinkish skin around the first two knuckles, a bit torn from hitting the rough wall or floor instead of their target, Vax assumes. “Not too bad. Good form, keeping the thumb on the outside, good,” Vax says in a low voice, guiding the hand down to Percival’s lap and reaching for the other hand.

“Nothing a little sleep won’t smooth over, looks like. Might have a sore hand for a day or two, but same for me, and it’s no more or less than what’s deserved, eh? Fighting like a couple of kids in the courtyard, arguing over something they’ve argued about a dozen times already, and will argue a dozen times more in the future.”

Vax crouches in place, weight back on his heels, as he considers if he should say anything else. But a moment passes, and another, and another. And Percival has only moved to rest against the wall behind him, hands still where Vax placed them in his lap, eyes unblinking. The smoke has left him, leaving a faintly burnt smell in its absence. He rocks back a couple of times before using the momentum to stand, taking his dagger from the wall and sliding it into its sheath, turning and leaving the room without another word.

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't seen all of campaign one yet, just bits and pieces here and there. Hopefully it's not too ooc. Thanks for reading! I just thought it'd be fun writing these two heavy-reliant on weapons dudes to get so mad they forgot about their fancy daggers and guns and just haul off and hit each other. It kind of felt like they needed it.
> 
> Also I couldn't find a way to naturally fit this in so it sounded good, but a line I think sums up how Percy sees things is this that got edited out: “If there wasn’t a lesson to be found in all of that, then it meant nothing. And I refuse to believe their lives and deaths meant nothing. I can’t stand it.”
> 
> Because I've noticed the way Taliesin plays characters is they're always saying something along the lines of a lesson, moral, or something to be learned. And Vax seems like the type to grate against "everything has a lesson" that Percival holds onto.
> 
> Also I've seen some people write cool stories that Percy still puts off some Orthax smoke when he's upset or extremely emotionally volatile even if Orthax isn't a part of him anymore and that's cool so I borrowed it. Don't @ me if it's wrong lol thanks


End file.
